Read on to win free tickets to a hilarious show! From Probationary Theatre’s press release:

Probationary Theatre Company is proud to announce their main stage production for fall; “Cosi” – A comedy by veteran, award-winning Australian playwright, Louis Nowra.

Set in Melbourne in 1971, the show takes a unique insight into the trials of Lewis, a young, first time director who is hired to direct a play as part of a therapeutic program meant to keep the inmates of an asylum interested, and to ‘bring them out of their shells.’ Unfortunately for Lewis, one of his cast members, Roy, has decided on Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, not just an opera, but a 3 hour long Italian one. Of course, none of the few volunteers can speak Italian, much less sing – indeed, some can barely speak. To make matters worse, the venue for this performance is a fire-gutted theatre with a leaking roof and faulty wiring. The cast include a pyromaniac, a junkie, a knife wielding romantic, a confused realist, a Lithium-addict pianist who hates Mozart, a manic depressive and a stuttering ex-lawyer who refuses to take part in the production.

This hilarious play within a play is written with a sensitivity and honesty that can only come from firsthand experience. Indeed, playwright Louis Nowra is the first to admit that this play is semi-autobiographical, as his first job out of college was directing
in an institution. Director, and co-owner of White Box Theatre, Liam Mitchinson, agrees “It’s so refreshing to see a story on the subject of mental illness where none of the characters fall into typical clichés. I know it’s a risk putting on an Australian play to what will largely be an American and Canadian audience, but I feel this script is just too good to pass up.”

Australian Daniel White, playing the role of Doug, agrees “It’s probably the most popular contemporary Australian play. The majority of the cast aren’t Australian, but we’re already having a lot of laughs in rehearsal. I think the themes and the humor
of this whacky situation is universal.” Daniel himself played the role of Doug, the asylum’s pyromaniac, in an Australian production over 10 years ago, and is thrilled to reprise the role here in Seoul.
Artistic director of White Box Theatre, Desiree Munro, agrees. “It’s not just a great Australian play. It’s a great play. Period.”

Cosi was fortunate to hone the talents of Quinn Olbrich and Miles Meili, skilled veterans of Seoul’s theatre community, along with first timers to the Seoul stage, Achilles Lakes and Brian Arundel.

Doors open Friday, September 16 at 8.30PM (9pm show) and is scheduled to run through October 1. Tickets are 15,000 won and can be booked in advanced via the website (no ID or payment necessary), or alternatively purchased at the door.

White Box Theatre is located at Hyochang Park, exit 2. Please contact Probationary Theatre Company for further information.

***

OK, enough of the official stuff. The two-act play has performances from September 16th to October 1st (Fridays at 9pm,  Saturdays at 5pm & 8pm, and Sundays at 4pm), and I’m giving away four sets of tickets right here.

Here’s how to win (three simple steps!)

• Make sure you’re following @chrisinseoulsk on Twitter (I’ll send you a direct message there if you win) –
• Join the Probationary Theatre Company’s Facebook group to keep up to date with what’s going on with future shows.
• Leave a comment on this post using your real name – something like ‘done’ or ‘finished’ is fine.
• Contest starts as of the post’s publishing date and ends Friday (Sept. 16) at 12 noon.
• Winners will be sent a Direct Message on Twitter and will be announced on Friday afternoon here.

Four randomly selected winners will get a pair of tickets for this Saturday’s afternoon show at the White Box Theater in Seoul. (September 17th at 5pm) Sorry, but no substitutes are available for those outside of Korea – I plan to run more contests with prizes available worldwide very soon!

© Chris Backe – 2011
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This post was originally published on my blog, Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.